Tears flowed from Adrienna Williams after learning she was selected as a Gates scholar and more recently while explaining that her then-single mother once worried whether she did enough as a parent for her children in their poverty-stricken Yazoo community.
Williams, a Jackson State University freshman biology major with ambitions of becoming a physician, candidly discussed economic hardships, including growing up in Section 8 housing. Despite some tough times, she graduated No. 2 this spring from Yazoo City High School to become among 1,000 Gates Millennium Scholars out of more than 57,000 students nationwide who applied this year.
The program of the United Negro College Fund is financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Given the odds of earning the scholarship, she was stunned, yet humbled, upon receiving the coveted honor. Read Full
